New York, New York – July 16, 2012 – “The Last Israelis” – a gripping military and psychological thriller – was recently published on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Israelis-ebook/dp/B008HEFVI2/) and has already garnered a large number of five-star reviews, including from some of Amazon’s top book critics. Amazon Vine Voice reviewer Chris Kruschke calls it “One part ‘Crimson Tide’ and another part ‘Twelve Angry Men,’” and raves that “the final third of the book is some of the fastest paced and most gripping literature I have ever read…I would hold it up against the writing of even the most established writers of political/military thrillers.”

The book is a work of fiction about the near future but is heavily based on the facts of today. Depicting a doomsday scenario, this cautionary tale about a nuclear Iran takes a suspense-filled ride aboard the Dolphin submarine. The mightiest vessel in the Israeli Navy, the Dolphin provides Israel’s “second-strike” answer to the existential threat posed by a nuclear Iran. Daniel, captain of the Dolphin, is abruptly ordered to cut his military drill short and bring his crew back to shore. His gut tells him that something ominous is happening, as he and the submariners under his command commence a mission that will be one of the most important in world history. “The Last Israelis” is full of surprises and unpredictable twists. In his five-star review, David Edmiston, another Amazon Vine Voice reviewer, calls the book “amazing” and a “spectacular account” noting that the “story plays out as well as any Tom Clancy novel.”

The book has enough naval action to qualify as a military and geopolitical page-turner about a Middle East Armageddon, but it also entertains under the genre of psychological thrillers. The submarine space in which most of the story takes place provides a kind of social experiment that is more intense and compelling than any reality show: 35 men from completely diverse backgrounds who must survive or die together under regular and sometimes life-threatening challenges. The Dolphin’s crew almost represents a microcosm of Israeli society: there are two descendants of Holocaust survivors; two native Arabic speakers, including a Christian and a Druze; the son of Persian Jews who escaped from the Iranian revolution of 1979; an Ethiopian who crossed Sudan by foot as a child to reach Israel; religious Jews who serve on a mostly secular crew; the atheist son of a Soviet Refusenik; a submariner who holds staunchly right-wing views and another who secretly attends leftist rallies; and even a homosexual whose parents were among the Vietnamese refugee boat-people saved by Israel in 1977. How do all of these individuals get along through the relentless pressures of submarine life, various threats at sea, and an intensely divisive and mind-bending dilemma placed before the group of 35 men?

Added to the cauldron of complexity are the rivalry and suspicion between the captain and his deputy, and the fact that one of the submariners suffered a tragic horror as a child and quietly lives with the resulting emotional scars – psychological wounds that could blow up unpredictably at any time.

In addition to all of the page-turning human drama, the novel has a deeply philosophical element. The diverse submariners must struggle with the weightiest of moral questions as they vigorously debate how to make the toughest decision of their lives. Extremely timely, “The Last Israelis” tackles an issue that regularly dominates world headlines: the unyielding march towards a nuclear weapon by the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite six rounds of economic sanctions by the UN Security Council and about a decade of diplomatic initiatives.

The story explores in detail one of the potential nightmare scenarios that most pundits would rather not address because of how horrific it could be: the catastrophic conflict that could materialize the day after Iran obtains a nuclear weapon. In his five-star review of the book, author and political commentator Alan Elsner writes, “This thriller is most timely because it reminds us of a scenario that unfortunately is all too realistic.”

The novel is now available on Kindle and Nook and will soon be sold through iBookstore, Sony, and other major e-book distributors. Learn more about Noah Beck and the Last Israelis at http://www.TheLastIsraelis.com.